Several months ago, US Airways had made a bid for Delta, whom I fly a lot. Now, everyone has their favorite airlines, but something about US Airways from flying them out of Charlotte and St Louis had never sat right with me. Their attitude might have been captured by their company spokesman a few days ago. In the midst of a major winter storm threatning the east coast, and most of the major airlines cancelling scores of flights ahead of the storm (including Jet Blue who seems to have learned their lesson), US Airways spokesman Andrew Christie declared:
The weather is fine for flying
Of course, not just a few hours later had the company cancelling flights due to a lack of deicing equipment. And then the headline on CNN this morning showed the absurity of that statement – 100,000 stuck travellers trying to fly:
Thousands of weary travelers faced a third day waiting to reach their destinations Sunday as US Airways struggled to recover from the ice and snow storm that paralyzed airports in the Northeast.
The airline was still trying to find seats for 100,000 passengers systemwide whose flights were grounded by Friday’s storm, spokesman Andrew Christie said.
Fine for flying indeed. I’m so happy that the takeove..ahem…merger of US Airways and Delta didn’t go through.